Long-term stabilization of red blood cell (RBC) volume has great value in biological research. In a hematology analyzer, for example, both quality control and calibration need cell particles with accurate and stable volumes. Red blood cells (RBCs) are the most abundant component in biological blood and are present in, in general, 1000-fold of white blood cells. Therefore, RBCs are a key factor in setting up the volume parameter of a hematology analyzer. A hematology analyzer is able to analyze a blood sample to obtain various information from cells, e.g. cell quantity, volume, and hemoglobin, etc. Inaccurate volume parameters will result in errors in other correlated parameters, which will further lead to mistakes in clinical diagnosis. For example, inaccurate volume parameters will significantly affect specific parameters related to treatment of anaemia such as hemoglobin concentration and content in RBC. Therefore, reliable systems for quality control and calibration should be established. Successful quality control and calibration largely depend on reference materials and calibrators. Reference materials and calibrators in the prior art are generally mixtures of particles with little variation in their volumes, wherein most leukocyte-like particles and platelet-like particles, whose numbers are low, are completely fixed cell particles or plastic microspheres. Their reactivity with hemolysin, i.e. surfactant, of the hematology analyzer is not required. However, RBCs are the major component of reference materials. They must be reactive with hemolysin in order to avoid exhibiting the same physical and chemical properties as leukocyte-like particles and interfering with assays by appearing as pseudo-leukocyte particles since they are present 1000-fold over leukocyte particles. Reactivity with hemolysin is the most important difference between RBCs and leokocytes. Therefore, RBCs must fulfill the following requirements: 1. they must keep the reactivity with hemolysin of the hematology analyzer and should not interfere with identification of other parameters by appearing as pseudo-leukocyte particles; 2. they must keep a long-term stable volume and have little variation of the average volume during the shelf life of the reference materials and calibrators.
There is much literature disclosing preparation techniques of reference materials. For example, a full blood reference material for three part differential of blood cells is disclosed in Chinese patent application 99116350. A method for preparation of a hematology blood reference materials is disclosed in US patent application 20030104631. A hematology blood reference material and the preparation method thereof is disclosed in patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,763. And hematology control compositions for three part differential of leukocytes and methods for their preparation and use in whole blood control systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,364. Most efforts have been focused on protection of the physiological activity of RBCs and the processing of white blood cells, however, methods for RBC processing in the prior art have shown little concern with volume stabilization. Chinese patent ZL94192671 provides a method used for preparation of stable cells. However, the method mainly relates to the stability of the biological activities of cells, in particular white blood cells, rather than the stability of cell volume. Moreover, this method requires a long processing at a low temperature (4° C.) and salts of metals and aldehydes used in the process are still in the system after processing. These facts limit the application of the method.
Conventional methods for RBC processing can be categorized into two groups: processing with fixation reagents and fixation methods; and using preservation reagents for RBCs. Fixation methods usually employ aldehydes, acids, esters, ketones, and radioactivity, etc.; preservation reagents are usually reagents derived from blood or immunological materials. These techniques, if used to prepare reference materials, generally have the following defects:                (1) The fixed RBCs tend to exhibit properties of white blood cells if they are hard to break, in particular they are difficult to be dissolved completely by surfactants;        (2) The parameters, e.g, the volume, of the fixed RBCs are not stable if the cells are not fixed sufficiently, thus the cells cannot be stored for a long term;        (3) Stored RBCs with preservation reagents may sustain or partially sustain physiological activities and parameters may keep stable in a short term, but they will expire if inner or outer circumstances change.        
Therefore, there are no solutions in the prior art providing a simple and rapid processing method of RBCs, which stabilizes the cell volume for a long period but keeps the cell reactivity with hemolysin of the Hematology analyzer. A processing method which enables RBCs to have little volume variation during the shelf life of the reference materials and calibrators while the cells do not interfere with measurement of other parameters is desired.